


Come in, my child

by SansaDaaeAndAryaBelacqua



Category: Arthurian Mythology
Genre: Allusions to reimagined Greek Mythology, F/F, Foundling Lancelot du Lac, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Genderbending, Guinevere is a cis lesbian, Lancelot and Guinevere are childhood friends, Lancelot du Lac is Agender, Merlin is a Jewish Rabbi, Multi, Queen Arthes is a trans lesbian, Rromani Lancelot du Lac, So is Kay the Seneschal, Uther Bashing, Welsh spellings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-02
Updated: 2021-01-02
Packaged: 2021-03-12 15:49:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28512939
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SansaDaaeAndAryaBelacqua/pseuds/SansaDaaeAndAryaBelacqua
Summary: A conversation in a tower between the Queen Mother and the Queen Consort.
Relationships: Guinevere/Lancelot du Lac, Guinevere/Lancelot du Lac/Arthur Pendragon, King Arthur/Guinevere, Past Ygraine/Uther - Relationship, Ygraine and Guinevere
Kudos: 2





	Come in, my child

“Come in, my child” said the Dowager Queen Eigyr Baladir to her daughter-in-law.  
Gwenhwyfar Galldonyd, daughter of Gwythyr Galldonyd and his husband Leodegrance de Carmelide, walked timidly into the quiet tower room where Eigyr, daughter of Anlawdd Baladir of the Blood of Arimathea and Gwenwyn Beisrudd the Princess of Gwynedd, was spinning quietly upon her loom. Everyone in Kaer Lleon knew that the Dowager Queen Eigyr was a fearsome old woman whose stare put fear into the heart of the fiercest warrior. No one dared to say no to this beautiful queen with her snow-white hair and red-brown eyes.  
“I hope I’m not disturbing you” Guinevere asked.  
“It’s fine, my child” Eigyr told Guinevere in a reassuring tone, “Come, sit down beside me.  
Guinevere eased herself down into the chair beside Queen Eigyr. She could feel the cold beneath her feet, for it was the night of the Winter Solstice and both Gwenhwyfar and Eigyr could hear the wind and snow perform their wonderful dance outside their window. Gwenhwyfar found herself deeply regretting not donning shoes for her meeting with the Dowager Queen, but still she was determined to have Eigyr hear what she had to say.  
“Speak up, my child” Eigyr said, “No need for prayers or useless pieties”.  
“Tell me, Your Grace” Gwenhwyfar asked, “How did you come to love your daughter?”  
Eigyr stopped her spinning and looked her daughter-in-law straight in the eyes with that terrible, hawk-like gaze that had put even Ancelyn themself to flight.  
“Arthes was a trial, I must admit” Eigyr said, “She was a fearsome, headstrong little girl who always knew what she wanted and was never afraid to demand it. That little one knew she was a girl from the time she turned five. I think she and Kathara talked it over one night in the kitchens on the night that Kathara also turned seven. I can still remember that night when I found the both of them duelling with broken branches in the castle yard of Caer Goch, dressed in maidens’ dresses but still going at each other as fiercely as if they were Arawn and Hafgan fighting for who would rule over all Annwn, or Mikha’el and Sama’el when they were the respective champions of Elyon and Moloch. At that moment, I knew that Arthes, my strange and feral daughter born from the seed of the most vile and repugnant of kings who ever sat upon the thrones of the Earth, was destined to have a life both wondrous and terrible”.  
“And so did Rabbi Myrddin” Guinevere commented as Eigyr nodded.  
“What I’m trying to say” Eigyr continued, “is that I do not blame you for being afraid of Arthes. I am her own mother, for Don’s sake, and even I can only barely begin to understand her”.  
“She is animated by the ideals the Rabbi taught to her” Gwenhwyfar commented, “not unlike how Ancelyn forever holds themself up to the strict ideals preached by our Uncle Gwenbors de Ganis”.  
“True” Eigyr responded, “However, I do feel that there is a difference between how Ancelyn performs their idealism and how Arthes performs hers. Ancelyn does not seek for change. Rather, they prefer to stay true and loyal to the ideals of our ancestors for fear of being consumed by the anger and pain that eats away at them from the inside like a wyvern gnawing at a tree.  
(“To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield” Gwenhwyfar thought unto herself, remembering a ballad about Queen Odysseis of Ithake that she and Ancelyn had heard as children in the court of her fathers at Cameliard).  
“Arthes, on the other hand” Eigyr continued, “is like a fire. She seeks not only to maintain, but to change. She will not rest until she has reshaped all of Alba into the Ideal State as she has conceived it, till she has vanquished the ancient ways of Might and Right and brought the Old Nobility to heel”.  
Gwenhwyfar nodded at the truth of the Elder Queen’s words. She herself had seen that cold, unyielding fire in Arthes’ dark blue eyes. It was appropriate that the name and sigil of House Penddraig depicted the Scarlet Dragon of Cymru, for the eyes of Arthes reminded Gwenhwyfar of the dragon slain by Georgios Diospoleos in the old stories.  
“Is there any of that rage in you?” Gwenhwyfar asked the mother of her wife and Queen.  
“Yes” Eigyr said, “Much of the passion that is in Arthes can also be found in me”.  
Gwenhwyfar looked into Eigyr’s eyes and could swear that she perceived a passionate fury shared between mother and daughter.  
“You hate him, don’t you?” Gwenhwyfar asked Eigyr.  
“Whom do you mean?” Eigyr inquired.  
“Uthyr Penddraig” Gwenhwyfar said, “He who was Arthes’ father and the former King of Kaer Lleon”.  
Eigyr growled with barely restrained fury at the mention of that hated name.  
“With all my heart, I do spit upon him!” Eigyr said, “I will never forgive him or his snake of a father”.  
“I’ve never heard much talk of old Cystennin Penddraig” Gwenhwyfar said.  
“He was a wicked man” Eigyr said, “Evil and greedy and hungry for power. He was as much a snake as his son was a dragon. He was forever seeking to seize that Ergyng which was my father’s kingdom for his own. To that end, he waged war upon our realm and killed my brother Gweir in order to take me prisoner. I only escaped because Cystennin’s elder son, Emrys Penddraig, poisoned his father with nightshade and then helped me escape to Kelliwik, the seat of House Branawel. And it was there that I fell in love with Gwrlais, that sweet, kind heir to the ancient lineage of the Raven Storm. I still miss him unto this very day”.  
Gwenhwyfar was not sure that she wanted to hear the rest of the story. All the people of Alba knew well what kind of monster Uthyr Penddraig had been, a warlike tyrant who lived only to subjugate and oppress the people of his realms. Gwenhwyfar shuddered to hear what happened next.  
“Were you happy with Gwrlais Branawel?” Gwenhwyfar asked.  
“Yes I was” Eigyr answered, “He was a good man, kind and clever as well. Together, we had three daughters who bore the names Anna, Gwyar, and Elaine. We were happy back then, and I was there by Gwrlais’ side when King Meirchion Cynfawrion made him the new Duke of Kernow. It was the proudest day of both our lives. I still remember how hard we hugged each other when the news arrived from Dinas Dwr”.  
“Yet your happiness did not last, I take it” Gwenhwyfar said.  
“True” Eigyr sighed, “Emrys died ten years after his father got sent off to Hell, and because he had no children, Uthyr was able to assume the throne of Kaer Lleon. And sure enough, the first thing that vile man did when he came to his brother’s throne was to claim that Kernow had access to ‘Dark and Dangerous Magical Powers’ and use that as an excuse to go to war for my body.  
“During that short but awful conflagration between Kaer Lleon and Dinas Dwr, Uthyr went to Rabbi Emrys Myrddin and convinced the old man to disguise him as Gwrlais so he could sneak into Trewarnevydh and claim me for his own. Meanwhile, his ally Lord Ulfin snuck into the caves and passageways beneath Trewarnevydh with twenty-five of Kaer Lleon’s lousiest knights and butchered my husband and most of his household like they were dogs before I myself was carted off to Kaer Lleon like a sacred idol from a fallen temple”.  
Gwenhwyfar gasped in horror. All of her life, her tutor and nursemaid Lady Clarine had told Gwenhwyfar and Ancelyn that Gwrlais Branawel had heroically died in battle, fighting for Kernow’s independence from Cymru. Never before had there been any hint of foul play being involved. It made Gwenhwyfar want to puke upon any portrait of Uthyr Penddraig that she could find between Dubris and Orkney.  
“After I was captured, Uthyr declared that my three beautiful daughters would be sold off like cattle!” Eigyr continued, “Gwyar went off to live with King Ljot Lamhalainn, Lord of the Orkneys, while Anna was forced to marry Urien Rhegedis, Lord of Lugalon and King of Rheged. And finally, Elaine was forcibly betrothed to Budick de Garlot, the infant Crown Prince of Kernevaille, At the time, Gwyar was seven years old, Anna was five years old, and Elaine was two years old. Only once all of this was done did Uthyr Penddraig get down to defiling and impregnating me.  
Once again, Gwenhwyfar felt the urge to vomit all over the statue of Uthyr in the Great Hall of Kaer Lleon.  
“How did you escape from this horrible nightmare?” Gwenhwyfar asked, “Did you ever escape?”  
“Yes I did” Eigyr responded, “Though you may find it peculiar how I did so”.  
“Tell me how you did so” Gwenhwyfar said.  
“Rabbi Myrddin eventually took pity on my suffering” Eigyr sighed, “and decided to help me after about six or seven months of pain. So he snuck into my room disguised as a nursemaid while I was hiding in a wardrobe and used a magical key to teleport me to Caer Goch. It was there that Cynyr Ceinfarfog and his wife Lady Khadijah took me in to serve as a nursemaid for his infant daughter Kathara back when she was still Caius Ceinfarfog”.  
“Cynyr has a fetish for the K sound” Gwenhwyfar commented.  
“Indeed he does” Eigyr responded.  
“Anyway” the Dowager Queen continued, “the result of my escape was that I found myself living as a peasant woman for fifteen years, and I came to sympathise with the common people who lived in and around Caer Goch. And I sought to pass the ideals that I discovered for myself on to Arthes”.  
“So” Gwenhwyfar asked, “Was it you who sought out Rabbi Emrys Myrddin to become your daughter’s tutor?”  
“Yes” Queen Eigyr responded, “It was I who made that decision. On the day that Arthes turned twelve, I went forth to the Oaken Cottage in the middle of the Coedwig Gwyllt and asked the Rabbi to teach my daughter the things that I hoped would lead her to become a better ruler than her father”.  
“We can only hope!” Gwenhwyfar said, “By the way Your Grace, Arthes told me about the lessons she learned amongst the animals when we first met. She spoke of perch and pike, of Marian the Squirrel and Mad Madame Mim”.  
“I do believe Arthes realised her true nature as a Sapphic woman from her meeting with that cute little Red Squirrel!” Eigyr said.  
“How do you know about those adventures?” Gwenhwyfar asked, “Has Arthes told you every detail of those wonderful adventures?”  
“Some parts yes” Eigyr responded, “For others, there was a large bird in the woods who told me all she learned and all she saw”.  
Gwenhwyfar was not sure whether or not she was hallucinating, but she could swear to every deity of whom she knew that she heard an owl going ‘Hoot!’ and ‘Hoot!’ and ‘Hoot!’ in the winter storm outside her tower window.  
“Does she ever miss her?” Gwenhwyfar asked her mother-in-law.  
“Misses who, my child?” Eigyr asked in turn.  
“Does Arthes ever miss Marian the Squirrel?” Gwenhwyfar responded.  
“I think she continued onwards with the course of life a long time ago, my child” Eigyr said, “There is a part of Arthes that will always carry a flaming sword for both that poor little squirrel and for Lisanor de Corentin. However, I think that nowadays, you are my daughter’s one true love”.  
“How do you know that?” Gwenhwyfar asked.  
“I’ve seen the way she looks at you when you enter a room” Eigyr said, “Her eyes light up and she briefly turns away from whatever scroll she’s reviewing or whatever decree she’s been writing in order to gaze at you with love and admiration such as has not been seen since the heroine Perseis first rescued Princess Andromeda from the sea monster known as Cetus”.  
“If only I loved the Dragon Queen as much as she loves me” Gwenhwyfar said.  
“What do you mean, child?” Eigyr asked.  
“I do love her beauty and many of the ideals she seeks to implement across Alba” Gwenhwyfar said, “However, when I come near to the fire that burns within her soul, it comes close to burning me. Though I understand my duty to bear her children and help her in the maintenance of this land, forever shall my heart belong to Ancelyn du Lac, the companion of my infancy”.  
Gwenhwyfar trembled a little, expecting a great rage to arise in the hawk-like face of Queen Eigyr. Instead, she found only compassion and empathy and understanding.  
“I understand, my child” Eigyr said, “Love is a strange and wonderful thing, and it strikes each of us in a unique manner. I pass no judgment against you”.  
Gwenhwyfar sighed with relief when she heard these words. She had expected naught but the harshest of judgments and condemnations from the Dowager Queen. Instead, she found only pity, compassion, and acceptance.  
“I cannot promise a happy ending to Arthes’ story, my child” Eigyr said, “Only that we can try to make the best possible life and do the greatest deeds of which we are capable in the time that Eiocha has given for us to live”.  
These words made Gwenhwyfar smile in her heart, though her face remained solemn. In her mind, she turned over Eigyr’s words as if she was cooking a stag into the finest cut of venison anyone in Alba had ever eaten or ever would eat.  
“Do you think Arthes will be angry with me when she learns that I love Ancelyn du Lac more than I love her?” Gwenhwyfar asked.  
“I hope not” Eigyr responded, “My daughter is not a cruel woman, but she does not take well to slights upon her honour. I fear she will be ruthless upon Ancelyn if she learns about your affair with them. Be careful, my child”.  
“I will, Queen Mother” Gwenhwyfar said, “I very much will”.  
This conversation was interrupted not long afterwards when Arthes finally entered the chamber to visit her mother and her wife.  
“How are you doing, Mum?” Arthes asked Eigyr.  
“I’m doing well, Your Grace” Eigyr said as she bowed before her daughter, “The marital tapestry is almost complete”.  
“Good to know” Arthes responded, “Come, Gwen. It’s time for the ceremony”.  
Eigyr kissed her daughter-in-law upon the forehead and then Gwenhwyfar took Arthes’ right arm in her own left arm and they descended the ancient spiral staircase in the Tower of Watch to reach the Great Presence Chamber where their wedding would occur. Even as they descended, Gwenhwyfar’s mind remained pensive.

**Author's Note:**

> I would call this an AU, but honestly what even is "canon" when it comes to Arthuriana? One of the most famous characters in this entire mythos is some French guy's OC who everybody acts as if they've always been a part of the story because their presence made the dramatic arc more compelling.


End file.
